Trump said to be seeking quick ways to quit Paris climate deal

Donald Trump is looking at quick ways to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord, defying broad international backing for the plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions, Reuters reports.

The president-elect’s advisers are considering ways to bypass a theoretical four-year procedure for leaving the accord, the report said, citing a source from Trump’s transition team.

Since Trump’s election victory last Tuesday, governments ranging from China to small island states have reaffirmed support for the 2015 Paris agreement during 200-nation climate talks underway in Marrakesh, Morocco.

But Trump has called global warming a hoax and has promised to quit the deal.

“It was reckless for the Paris agreement to enter into force before the election” on Tuesday, the source told Reuters.

The Paris accord won enough backing for entry into force on Nov. 4, four days before the election.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday in New Zealand that the Obama administration will do everything it could to implement the Paris accord before Trump takes office.

The accord says in its Article 28 that any country wanting to pull out after signing on has to wait four years.

In theory, the earliest date for withdrawal would be Nov. 4, 2020, around the time of the next US presidential election.

But the incoming Trump administration is weighing alternatives that could accelerate the pull-out.

The plans include sending a letter withdrawing from the 1992 international framework accord that is the parent treaty of the Paris Agreement; voiding US involvement in both in a year’s time; or issuing a presidential order simply deleting the US signature from the accord, according to the report.

The 2015 Paris Agreement seeks to phase out net greenhouse gas emissions by the second half of the century and limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times.

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